


Meet Me In St Louis, Louis

by undernightlight



Series: 2020 Writing Challenge [12]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, M/M, Post-Canon, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier is Emotional, Soft Richie Tozier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 09:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undernightlight/pseuds/undernightlight
Summary: Richie and Eddie make a promise to each other, that if they’ve sorted out what they need to and they still feel the same, they’ll meet in St Louis in exactly one year.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: 2020 Writing Challenge [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1603210
Kudos: 57





	Meet Me In St Louis, Louis

The marriage had failed, or had never really succeeded depending on which way you looked at it, and somehow Eddie was okay with that. It sucked, a lot, but it gave him an out, a way that meant leaving his wife was somehow okay because it was an organic failure, and not one step removed from an affair.

He did tell her though, he felt he owed it to her, though he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t love her, not anymore at least, and sometimes he doubted if he ever truly did, and maybe that was why he owed her the honesty. She wasn’t happy, by any means - he did leave out the part about maybe never really loving her because he wasn’t cruel - but she knew that she couldn’t stop him, and after being officially divorced, it wasn’t really her business either.

He packed a small suitcase because he didn’t have a bigger one, and because he did intend to come back. Maybe this small, shitty apartment would remain his home, maybe he’d be bringing someone back with him, or maybe he’d only ever return in a U-Haul to move his limited belongings to California.

Maybe it was cheesy, deciding to meet under the Gateway Arch, but god was the hopeless romantic inside of him happy with it.

He’d been waiting an hour, the flowered in his hands already starting to wilt. He wasn't even sure Eddie liked flowers, but hopefully, he'd find out. They hadn’t talked about it, text or call or otherwise, since they made the decision one year ago.

_“If, in a year, we’ve sorted out all the shit in our lives, then maybe we can finally give it a go?”_

_“Richie, I have a life.”_

_“Yeah, I know that Spaghetti, that’s why I said to sort our shit out first. Okay, so how about this. One year, exactly, we meet somewhere, somewhere neither of us have ever been before. If stuff’s good, then we, you know, do it, this, us, whatever. We can give it a go and see if it works. If shit’s still a mess, then that’s it, we just don’t turn up and life goes on and it’s all okay, water under the bridge, that sort of thing.”_

_“Are you sure this is what you want?”_

_“It’s the smart decision, and if I’m ever going to use my brain then it’ll be for you. So how about St Louis? I’ve always wanted to go but never had the chance?”_

_“...okay.”_

_“And the Gateway Arch? At one pm?”_

_“Sure Richie.”_

Thinking about the conversation, of Eddie’s unsure tone, maybe he shouldn’t be expecting him. Honestly, Richie didn’t know at all what he was expecting. He was hoping, rather desperately, that Eddie would appear, walking up along the grass with a smile. He wasn’t sure he’d get that, but that hopeless romantic part of him that he tried to keep locked away, just wouldn’t let him stop hoping.

Surprisingly, or maybe rather not, he didn’t have that much shit to sort. He was a stand-up comic, what did he have that needed figuring out? Things in the past year had been pretty much the same as it had been all that time before, just without his haunted past looming behind him, not that he'd remembered it but still.

Richie had spent the last year thinking about this exact day, this exact place and time, and hoping.

He checked his watch again. 2:13. He should go home, but he wasn’t ready to give up on it yet; he wasn’t ready to give up on Eddie yet. Maybe he was just running late, maybe there had been a delay on the plane, maybe Eddie was nervous. There were plenty of logical, understandable reasons why Eddie could be running so late; Richie would tell himself anything to believe that Eddie was coming. 

But it was difficult to keep believing when he'd been waiting so long, staring into masses of people he didn't recognise. 

The flowers were tired in his hand. Looking at them, it was easy to let his hope slip away. He dropped them, letting them hit the grass, plastic cringing, because they were useless anyway, not when Eddie wasn't coming. 

But then he saw him. That crooked smile, and Richie's heart stopped. Eddie smiled as he approached, clearly so fucking nervous but god, so was Richie so maybe it didn't matter. Fuck, this was happened. 

Eddie walked up in crumbled suit pants and a shirt half tucked in, half pulled out. Worn and torn red converse and jacket in hand. He managed to walk all the way up to Richie before anything was said. 

"Hi," Eddie said, and he sounded nervous. He scratched at the back of his neck. "Sorry I'm late, the plane, it got relayed. And the rental car place, it was being a pain."

"I-I-I - I mean, fuck rental cars man, they suck." And that got a chuckle out of Eddie, which was such a perfect fucking sound, Richie wanted to hear it every day for the rest of his fucking life. "I urm, I'm glad you came though."

"Yeah, so am I." He looked down at the grass. "Were these for me?" Eddie knelt down and picked up the flowers, a little smushed down, but mostly still intact. 

"Yeah, yeah, I guess they were."

Eddie smiled. "Thanks. Didn't think you much of the flower type."

Richie stared, still just fucking awe stuck that Eddie was actually there in front of him, looking down at the sad flowers but smiling like they were perfect. God, jesus fuck that smile. Oh did Richie love that smile. 

"Are you okay?" Eddie asked. Clearly the silence had drawn on longer that Richie had thought it had, and he'd just been staring like an idiot. 

"I urm, y-yeah, yeah, I think, I think I'm okay."

"You don't sound too sure of yourself."

"I don't, I don't know how you do sound so sure of yourself, you're the one that left your fucking wife for me."

Oh, yeah, right. Up until then, somehow Richie had forgotten about that, that for Eddie to be in front of him exactly one year later, that he sorted his shit out, because unlike Richie, he actually did have a life. And it wasn't just like he left his wife - at least, Richie was assuming that because no way was this going to be a three way - Eddie left his wife for him. For him, Richie fucking "Trashmouth" Tozier. 

Eddie scratched at the back of his neck with his free hand, averting his gaze. "It, I mean, it surprisingly wasn't that hard." He could tell there was more, but he didn't think it was the time to press Eddie on that. "What about you though? Surely, you're life, I mean,” but Eddie didn’t finish his sentence.

“I don’t have a life,” he replied, trying to keep it light, but something seeped out, the sadness, his loneliness, but he smiled anyway, hoping that would be enough. It wasn’t, and Eddie looked up at him with sad eyes, and Richie’s smile turned sad, eyes glossy and there was no way he could hide that with the big fucking lenses in front of his eyes.

Eddie reached out, a gentle hand on the side of his face, and Richie let out a choked laugh and tears fell. He wasn’t sure if he was happy or sad or scared or excited, maybe all of the above, but it was a lot, whatever it was.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Eddie said. He had nothing to be sorry for, surely he knew that, but Richie couldn’t get the words to form in his mouth to tell him so. “You waited all this time, for me,” and with a chuckle, “And I was a hour fucking late.”

A laugh erupted from Richie, an ugly but joyous sound because, “Eddie, I’ve waited most of my fucking life, one more hour was nothing.”

He was pulled in for a hug, and god he felt like a baby, Eddie cradling his head against his neck and shoulder, but it felt nice, to be held. He wrapped his arms around Eddie’s waist tightly, like maybe, somehow, it would all disappear. It never happened, and they stood their under the Gateway arch in each other’s arms, clinging for dear fucking life because to Richie at least, that’s what it felt like.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this in my fucking drafts for months, and yet, I only watched Chapter 2 today... oops? I knew enough about the characters in their adult form just through the fandom that I knew enough of their characters to work on something, but I've only just finished it today, so it is at least still fitting, at least, I think so.


End file.
